Betty was proud of herself. She’d remembered something. She wished she could tell the man called Jack, but he had gone to the hospital. She’d try to remember to tell him when he came back all about the comedy that wasn’t very funny and the candy cotton and how her secret friend had smiled.
Clayton woke up to reach for the water glass and poured in the packet of bromo he kept by his side of the bed. Despite Rachael’s warning, he’d eaten some of her hot salsa. His stomach was still on fire and the corn chips had made him terribly thirsty.
He glanced over at Rachael’s side of the bed and noticed that her water glass was empty. She must have been thirsty, too.
“Rachael? Do you want me to get you more water?” Clayton waited for a moment, but Rachael was sound asleep. He knew that filling her glass would be the gentlemanly thing to do, but he was so tired, he couldn’t face the thought of walking all the way to the bathroom and back. If Rachael wanted more water in the middle of the night, she’d just have to get it herself. Wasn’t that what women’s lib had been all about?
He frowned as he settled back against the pillow. The water had a bitter aftertaste. Perhaps the avalanche had loosened some rust in the pipes.
There was a burning sensation in Clayton’s chest and he wished the bromo would work faster. He was utterly exhausted, and it had nothing to do with the packing they’d done for Johnny or repotting Darby’s Marshall Golds. He was a middle-aged man, in good shape of course, but he’d acted like a randy teenager today. He’d made love to Rachael twice, once before the avalanche and again tonight.
A smile spread across Clayton’s face as he remembered what they’d done. He considered rolling over, waking Rachael, and doing it again, but he didn’t have the energy. He was so tired that he had no feeling at all in his legs and when he tried to reach out to adjust his covers, he could barely manage to wiggle his finger. His entire body felt numb and there was a horrible taste in his mouth. His last waking thought before the deep night closed in was that they really ought to order bottled water. Just as soon as their phone was working again, he’d call to find out how much it cost.
Betty was awake again and the television was still on. The movie on the forbidden channel five was still running. She glanced at the chair, but her secret friend was gone. The clock by the side of the bed had the big hand on the six and the little hand halfway between the two and the three. She wasn’t sure what that meant, but she knew it was nighttime outside. Her friend had left before the movie was over. Betty reached out to slip a blank disk in the machine. She would record the ending and if he wanted to watch it, she could play it for him. She’d try to remember to tell him the next time he came.
At last the movie was getting exciting. Another man had appeared in the bedroom. The actor and actress were dead. Betty could tell by the way he wrapped them in blankets that covered their faces. He wasn’t a doctor because he didn’t have a black bag. And if he wasn’t a doctor, he must be playing an undertaker. She remembered that word. The man who took you under was the undertaker. There was another word now, a new modern one. She couldn’t remember it, but that was all right. One word for one man was perfectly adequate.
Betty watched the screen intently, but she couldn’t quite make out the undertaker’s face in the dim light. He lifted one bundle and carried it out the door. She wasn’t sure how she knew, since there was nothing on the screen to tell her, but she was sure the door led to a garden. Red and yellow and pink roses. Betty remembered them so vividly, she could almost smell their lovely perfume. Someone had grown roses in this garden. Had she seen this movie before?
There was a way to switch cameras and Betty pushed the proper button. The scene shifted to the garden, where the undertaker was digging a hole. This must be a funeral, but there were no mourners. That was the name for the people who came to watch someone buried. There were no flowers, either, at least not many. The rosebushes looked sad and neglected. Perhaps the woman who’d taken care of them had been in another movie on a different channel.
The undertaker was very strong. Betty watched him dig until the hole was deep, then roll one blanket-wrapped bundle into the grave and go back inside for the other. Betty winced as he rolled the second body right in on top of the first. There was no casket. That must be why this scene was taking place in the middle of the might. The family was ashamed that they couldn’t afford a proper funeral.
As soon as he’d finished with the dead people, the undertaker went to the garden building and came back with a package to throw in the hole. It had a flag on the front, something to do with the men who sailed ships and wore gold hoops in their ears. Then he went inside to bring out three suitcases and the type of bag that was designed to fit under seats in an airplane. Betty laughed as she recognized the bag. The blue folders were inside and they were from the movie she’d watched with her secret friend on forbidden channel zero. This movie must be a sequel, like Rocky II.
The undertaker threw the suitcases into the hole and went back inside to get two parkas and two pairs of boots. These were very strange things to bury. But when the undertaker added two water glasses to the pile in the grave, Betty began to understand. The dead people were playing ancient Egyptians. The pharaohs had buried things for the afterlife in their tombs.
It took a long time for the undertaker to fill in the grave and level the earth next to the sad rosebushes. At last he was finished and he disappeared from the screen. Betty watched for a long time, but nothing else happened. This movie must be over. Since she was wide-awake now, she switched through the forbidden channels to see what else was playing.
Channel nine was showing a movie with two people in bed. All the movies this time of night seemed to star people in bed. Betty smiled as she recognized the cowgirl who shared her in-between name. The foreign actor was sleeping next to her and they were nestled together like two spoons in a drawer. Something about the scene made Betty feel happy and she watched for a long time before she tried another channel.
On eight the doll-lady sat in a living room chair, huddled in a blanket. There were two fuzzy white rabbits wrapped around her feet and she looked as if she’d been crying. She was silent and the rabbits didn’t move a whisker, so Betty turned on the camera in the dollhouse.
Betty gasped as the camera scanned the room. Pieces from the dolls were scattered all over the floor and it was a terrible mess. They must have shot a disaster movie and she’d missed it. Betty loved disaster movies, and she was very disappointed. She’d have to remember to check this channel again in case they reran it.
The forbidden channels weren’t very interesting tonight. Betty had to switch all the way down to three before she found another movie to watch. This one was a detective show. The young actress was searching through a drawer in a desk. She was looking for something, and she was very careful not to make any noise. Betty watched for several minutes, but the actress never found what she was looking for.
Forbidden two was Betty’s favorite channel. She liked the animals and she knew some of their names. One was giraffe and another was bear. There was also a big animal with horns and she frowned as she tried to think of what it was called. Moose, that was it. Alces Americanus, and this one had its head stuck right through the wall. She watched it for a long time, but it never moved at all and since she couldn’t seem to figure out how they’d trained it to do that, she switched to channel one. It was more of the same old thing. Two people sleeping. They didn’t make movies the way they used to. Betty couldn’t find any action at all until she pressed the button for forbidden channel zero.